While popular Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao prepares for his long-awaited fight with American boxing champ Floyd Mayweather, Filipinos have gone on overdrive in tackling another favorite sport: Politics. This early, a guessing game has begun on who are running in 2016 for the position of president, vice-president and twelve senators.
Vice-President Jejomar Binay still enjoys the lead in the presidential race though neophyte senator Grace Poe is expected to climb the rankings with her calm and professional handling of the explosive Senate investigation into the Mamasapano massacre. Local Governments and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas whom his boss, President Aquino, kept out of the loop in the planning of the special mission to arrest two international terrorists in Mindanao, is expected to notch a few points in the next survey. Some pundits feel that Roxas would have been a more serious contender had he decided to resign his post. I disagree. Quitting at a time when the police investigation has yet to be completed would have been, pardon the pun, a major cop-out. Meanwhile, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is said to be the dark horse in the presidential race. Sen. Bongbong Marcos’s name is also being raised.
The road to 2016 appears to be filled with emotional landmines. Lest we forget, President Aquino was really not on anyone’s radar screen for the 2010 presidential race until his revered mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, passed away due to cancer. The votes cast in candidate Noynoy Aquino’s favor were akin to sympathy cards coming from the bosom of a grateful nation. Today, the political environment is different. Public sentiment leans strongly in favor of truth, justice and compassion — as if 100 million Filipinos have taken up the cudgels for the 44 members of the Special Action Forces (SAF) who perished while fighting armed rebels and civilians in the cornfields of Mamasapano. The tears and pleas for justice by the families of the SAF 44 continue to reverberate, while the Palace communications team does its best to parry the blows, and calm the roiling waters.
Some senatorial aspirants have stepped up their visibility through social media and more frequent provincial trips. According to the grapevine, the administration ticket is nearing completion with some Cabinet secretaries included. Said to be foremost among them is Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who is at the center of almost all headline-grabbing news given her position. Rissa Hontiveros, who previously ran and lost in the 2010 and 2013 elections, is said to be eyeing a third try, and based on recent surveys, may yet prove true the saying that third time’s the charm. Secretary Joel Villanueva will also likely throw his hat in the ring, banking on the extensive and close-knit network of vocational graduates that passed through the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) under his leadership.
On the side of Vice-President Binay’s ticket, he has two incumbent senators, namely, Vicente Sotto III and Gregorio Honasan, both shoo-ins for re-election. Congressman Sherwin Gatchalian, scion of a wealthy businessman who earned praise as former mayor of Valenzuela City, has been going around the country with the vice-president in preparation for the 2016 senatorial polls. Boxer Manny Pacquiao is said to be looking for a promotion, from congressman to senator. It is anyone’s guess as to which ticket he would be running under.
With only six months to go before the actual filing of certificates of candidacies, the guessing game will soon be over. We do live in interesting times.
